Music Appreciation
by Kaokie
Summary: Jeff is convinced to become a classmate's band manager, leaving him less time to spend with the group; Troy and Abed get trapped in a freezer in the school kitchen.
1. Opening

**A/N:** In this attempt to put my fanfic in the format of an episode of Community, the criticism I'd really like to hear is whether or not I've managed to tap into that amazing vibe the show has - and how well I do the characters/how I can do any of them better.

* * *

"So, how was everyone's summer?" Shirley said after a long silence, in that sweet voice she always used. The 'eh' collectively murmured didn't exactly answer her. She raised her eyebrows. "Well, don't everyone go off explaining at the same time."

Britta chose to elaborate. "Boring and inconsequential."

"I caught up on Glee." Troy nodded. "Still terrible."

Jeff piped up in assent, until he realized that he had broken his usual mask of uninterested-ness and hid it with a laid-back cough.

"Groundhog Day," Abed said, and Shirley looked worried for him.

"All summer, sweetie?"

"Once a day, everyday. It adds a whole new dimension to the film."

"Well, Abed, that can't be healthy."

"Probably not. When you guys close your eyes do you see Bill Murray?"

"No, just Brendan Fraser." All eyes were on Troy, but he just stared off into the distance, blinked and made a disgusted face. "Beetles."

There was another long moment of silence before Jeff spoke, thumb hovering over his phone as he pretended to search for buttons while texting. "I had a great summer."

"Deets?"

Pierce got one or two… or six weird looks for that one.

"What? I like to stay in the loop."

"I think I know the 'deets'," Britta said bitterly. "How many girls was it? Six, seven? Were they totally smokin' hot, Jeff? Were they vapid enough for your tastes? Because you know, like does sometimes attract like."

Jeff stood up and picked up his things. "Well, this has been fun and all, but if we're going into this territory, I think I'm going to pass. I didn't bring my chip that allows me to feel emotions, and I have important things to attend to."

"Things like leading on women and then bailing when things get emotional?" She yelled after him, but he was gone, and the door was closed before she finished. Britta didn't notice Annie's squirming.

"In some TV shows, this would be where the theme song plays, marking the last serious topic discussed as an important theme throughout the episode." Abed observed the group. "But there could possibly be a one-liner from a comic relief character that serves as a brief distraction."

Troy, still terrified, buried his face in his hands.

"You had to read the book of the dead, you stupid, hot bitch!"


	2. Act II

Jeff didn't actually have things to do, but it wasn't a lie if all parties involved knew that. He had bought a bagel in the cafeteria - laughing silently to himself all the while, remembering the good old days, when giving Britta crap wouldn't get Shirley on his case - and made his way out into the quad. Nothing interesting seemed to be happening except-.

Whoa. Hot redhead at 3'o clock. For a moment, he really didn't care about how angry Britta might get at him, or anybody else who approached her for that matter, if she found out that he had hit on chicks after he bailed on her out of fear. (The fact that they hadn't talked all summer was also not going to help much if he was going to have to placate her.)

He made a beeline in that direction for a solid few seconds before realizing that was just a really skinny guy with long hair.

_ Bad, bad, bad._

He tried to turn away, but the guy noticed him and it was too late.

"Can I help you?" Skinny ginger asked, looking pretty weirded out for an androgynous guy.

"Just wanted to tell you that your hair looks great."

The feminine man gave him a strange look and Jeff walked away, downtrodden for all of five seconds, until another - notably more 'a woman' - target appeared in the form of a cute brunette. She was laughing at him, but that was unimportant.

She had this strange flapper girl hairstyle going for her, which was somewhat interesting, even if she had boring black-brown eyes. When she was done laughing at him, he observed that her lips were naturally inclined to pout, and she wore moderately fashionable clothes from Target. She was a solid six. A seven on a good day. And she was carrying a guitar case. Easy, easy pickings. He bounced right back.

"I'm glad that I've managed to brighten your day." He smiled at the girl. "People do often say that I'm quite hilarious."

The girl laughed again. "Or pathetic."

"I don't get that so much. Nice guitar, you play? I've been looking for a teacher, I've always wanted to learn to play."

The girl gave him a look.

"Play guitar-?" She glanced at the case. "Oh, no. I'm a drummer."

"Coincidentally, I have also always wanted to learn to play the drums."

"Is that so? Hold on one moment." She smiled, and waved over at a man across the quad, who seemed quite confused as she put down the case and opened it. Everything went pretty normally until she removed an acoustic guitar from within and proceeded to smash it into the ground, until it was in tiny pieces, all the while the man running over towards them.

"What the hell are you-?" He yelled, but interrupted himself with a yelp of pain when the girl stepped on his foot, hard, smiling sweetly.

"I hope they're worth it."

And then she proceeded to walk away as if nothing happened. Jeff followed, befuddled. The man just knelt down on the ground and tried to pick up the pieces of his broken instrument.

Winger raised an eyebrow. "What was that about?"

"Oh, that was his guitar."

"And who was he?"

"Boyfriend."

"How loving of you."

"Ex-boyfriend."

"What did he do?"

"Most of a girlband except for the lesbian."

Jeff blinked and lagged behind for a moment.

"And you went out with him for how long?"

"A few months. He seemed different at first. He was professional, clean. A good manager."

"Manager?"

"He was our band manager. Pope Springs Eternal? Ever heard of us?"

His eyebrow was stuck like that apparently.

"I know, terrible name," she said. "But he was our band manager, and then we started going out."

"Because that's totally professional."

She laughed. "Yeah, well… I've never been a great judge of character. We started dating because I got drunk at a party, he started feeling me up on a couch and it escalated. Perhaps that should have been some sort of warning sign."

"Probably."

"We were a thing since… well, just now. Yesterday, I found out he was skimming funds and I called him to talk about it. I called his home phone and a girl who wasn't me answered."

"Well, that's-."

"I need a new manager."

"I-."

"Would you like to replace that despicable son of a bitch?"

"I don't know if-."

"I understand if you're too busy, I just know that you're sort of a cool guy around here. I've seen you. People really like you."

"I guess I could think about it."

"Oh, thank you! You're a saint!"

Jeff shrugged and smiled hesitantly, quite sure that this wasn't going to end so well. "Jeff Winger, by the way."

"Spencely." They shook hands.

"Interesting first name."

"Last name."

"You have a first name at all?"

"Not as far as you're concerned." She paused a moment then smiled wide. "See you around-. Oh! My number. Uh. Here."

Spencely removed a pen from her pocket and Jeff allowed her to write her number on his palm.

"I'll call you about it, then," Jeff said, awkwardly.

"Thanks again!"

He waved goodbye and she left in the direction of the language department.

"Wow."

* * *

"Are you sure there's rocky road in here?"

"Positive."

"Really?"

"Nope."

Troy rolled his eyes. "We're gonna be late."

"Never underestimate the value of a caper. If we want to keep our spot as the lovable duo, we're going to have to upstage Annie and Shirley's cop movie from last year."

"Sometimes I wish you grew up Amish, Abed. Movies and television have given you high standards."

Abed didn't comment, merely kept searching the freezer for the ice cream flavor that they had both decided they needed to find.

"Your thing with everything being like not-real-life is kind of annoying."

Abed mumbled something in response.

"Uh, I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I said 'your thing with being unsupportive is really annoying'."

Troy's jaw dropped.

"What did you say?"

"I said you're unsupportive."

"That's not something the Abed I know would say."

"Hidden character depths."

"You are not a character! Stop simplifying everything!"

"This is the point when I point out what a hypocrite you are for telling me to stop simplifying everything, when you ignore my hidden character-."

A loud SLAM echoed through the freezer, and Troy turned around to see that the door had closed. The two friends' eyes widened as they simultaneously began pushing on the door in an attempt to get it open.

"Now look what you've done, Abed! T-Bone _cannot _be kept on ice."

Abed just stared at him.


	3. Act III

Of course, now Jeff would have to listen to Pierce laughing at him for being a 'pansy' and not being able to weasel himself out of the situation. And Shirley was going to give him looks because of his (failed) attempt to flirt. Britta would definitely not be happy. But he told the group - most of the group, where were Abed and Troy anyways?

"How did I know that my prediction would be right?" Britta rolled her eyes. "Typical Winger."

Shirley could hardly hold back her disgust, and shot Jeff dirty looks.

"I know, I know. I'm a very bad man, never mind that I 'fessed up to it, _and _that I didn't really lead her on at all."

"Pansy." Pierce mumbled.

So, Abed wasn't the only one who could predict what the group was going to say. "Thank you, Pierce. Thank you for being brave enough to comment on other people's manliness despite your sterility."

"My sperm are-."

"Unimportant to Anthropology," Annie said suddenly, hoping to divert the conversation. "Please, can we-."

"No, I'd like to hear Jeff harass a poor, old man a little more." Britta shot Jeff a dirty look.

He blinked. "Are we talking about the same old man?"

"I'm not old-."

"Shut up, Pierce." Britta and Jeff said simultaneously, and then looked at each other a moment. She looked away bitterly afterwards.

Jeff rolled his eyes. "Britta, come outside with me. I need to talk to you."

She sighed and stood up, but Jeff still grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the study room. They kept walking away from the group as he started to talk, hoping that they wouldn't hear.

"Britta, I'm a jerk."

"That's been established."

"I left the study room earlier so that I wouldn't have to deal with the consequences of my actions at the Transfer dance, not so that I could specifically hit on girls. That did happen, and I shouldn't have done it. I just… wanted to make myself feel better, because it made me feel in control." Britta said nothing. "I can't control you, and that scares me. I can't control when you're going to say that you love me in front of anyone who cares enough to go to a dance with a _very _unfortunate name. I-. I'll stop hitting on other girls if you tell me if any of what you said hasn't changed over the summer. I'll try to stop… for you. God, that sounded cheesy."

She took a moment before talking.

"I got jealous of Slater, and I got caught up in the moment. I didn't want to be outdone by her." She said. "It's not nearly as serious and emotional as I let on."

"You don't love me?"

"Love is a strong word."

"And if strong words never applied, they wouldn't exist."

She gave him a serious look.

"I love you like a friend, and that's all I know."

"I don't believe that."

"You don't have to. Let's be friends again. I'm sorry for the snark."

"You're forgiven for the snark."

"Forget the snark, Jeff."

"Done."

"Let's go study the study of man."

"Let's."

* * *

"You think that I think you're simple and uninteresting?" Troy said incredulously. "You think that I think that you're a 'flat character'?"

"You were surprised that I called you out on being unsupportive. You said that's not the Abed I know. You think that there's nothing more to me than meets the eye, and that I'm not allowed to express my feelings."

"I didn't say any of that, Abed!"

"You were thinking it."

"What, so you're a mind reader now? First it was 'seeing the future' and now it's 'mind reading'?"

"I'm an observer of people. I get them."

"No, Abed, because if you got people then you'd have more friends."

He didn't say anything in response.

"You don't even talk to everyone in the group. Just me, Jeff and Britta most of the time. Jeff doesn't really care about you, and Britta just pretends because she's one of those white people who like to talk people who aren't white and pretend they care."

Abed still didn't say anything.

"And me? I really do feel bad for you. I want to help you, Abed, but all I get in response is 'Breakfast Club' this and 'Sixteen Candles' that! What is it with you and Molly Ringwald? And then you get me stuck in a freezer! It's _cold _in here, Abed! Don't you even care about how this affects me?"

"Are you done?"

Troy is silent for a moment. "What?"

"Are you done?"

"Sure, fine."

"You're the dumbest member of the group."

"Excuse me?"

"You're not very smart at all."

"That's your idea of a comeback?"

"No. You're vain, self-centered and vapid and if you went a day without talking about yourself, I'm pretty sure you'd explode. It's a character flaw that keeps you from recognizing the depth in other people. To you, I don't have feelings and that's why my response to your verbal abuse is so shocking. And you pretend that other people are racist so that your judgment of their race is hidden, don't talk about Britta that way."

Troy was far too shocked to reply.

"You were popular back in high school, how many times did you make fun of Annie?"

"What?"

"How many times?"

"I don't know what you're-."

"Did you call her 'Little Annie Adderal'?"

"Yeah, but-."

"Don't you even care about how that affects her?"

"You're twisting my words!"

"I'm using something you said earlier to show how hypocrital you are. It's a dramatic echo."

"That's a movie cliché! You've talked about it before! Stop that!"

"It's also in books and shows."

"You know I don't read books."


	4. Act IV

Jeff had agreed to be the manager for Pope Springs Eternal, despite the terrible name, and he was not unimpressed. Their songs had catchy lyrics, good beats, the guitarists were amazing, the lead vocals were amazing, the harmonizing backup vocals were amazing. He was actually kind of excited about being their manager.

And he was _great _at it.

He got them a gig at a Junior High graduation dance because he'd once represented the principal. He raised their number of Facebook fans by at least fifty! In a _day_!

And it was ridiculous amounts of fun. He was using his ability to get people to think and do things and he was getting money from it! 15%! He'd made… fifteen dollars so far! He spent all of his time out of school with the band. They were cool people. The lead guitarist - Mary - had a tongue piercing. And her brother was a lawyer for a big firm, a connection he was planning on using later on. The bassist, Alan, possibly the gayest man he'd ever men and he'd spent a lot of time around the Dean, could get him free coffee from his job at Starbucks. The rhythm guitarist was Spencely's older brother, Liam. He was one cool guy. By teaching three simple chords, he gave him the tools to get laid.

They were all really relaxed people and there was no pressure around them! They could all hang out and they liked him _all the time._ They were never mad at him, no matter how much of a jerk they knew he was. And he didn't even feel like being a jerk most of the time.

Jeff strolled into Anthropology on Wednesday, placed his stuff on his desk and smiled at Britta's not so happy face next to him.

"Good morning, Ms. Perry. How are you?"

"Annie's back-to-school dinner at Applebees last night. You didn't go."

"Band practice." He did feel sort of bad, but he was also pretty euphoric lately, and it wasn't easy hiding that. "I had to keep those slackers in line."

"That's fine. I'm sure you can make it _next year_."

"Is this about us or Annie?"

"We talked about this, Jeff." She glared daggers at him. "This is about Annie. She cried through the whole dinner. The waiter had to threaten to call the police an hour after we finished eating to get her to leave. She wanted to wait for you. And Abed and Troy didn't come either… I don't know where they've been."

Okay, euphoria over. He paused a moment.

"I really am sorry, Britta."

"Tell Annie, not me."

"I will where is she."

"Nurse's office."

"Sick?"

"Crying."

"Crap."

* * *

They had been stuck in the freezer overnight, sitting on opposite sides of the 5 ft x 7 ft room. It was cold, they didn't have anything in there to eat but ice cream and raw meat. Abed ate the fish, it would be just fine anyways, but Troy would only go for the sherbet. They didn't have utensils. It was painful trying to eat, but neither let on as they continued not talking to each other.

A day… two days… time melted and blended together. It was all one big hour. It was all so… so… terrifying. Troy was sure that he was going to die in there. No one had come by, yet. It was pizza day, and Greendale got their pizza from a nearby restaurant. No one would open the freezer until at least tomorrow, and they'd be frozen by then. Troy whimpered.

"Abed, I don't wanna die like this."

He didn't say anything.

"I don't wanna die with fish and rocky road. I can't choose that." Troy sniffled. "But I also don't wanna die mad at my best friend, and I can choose that."

"Me, too."

"I didn't mean anything I said. You get people. You get them more than I do. I am stupid. I'm really dumb. Jeff does care. Britta does care. And I'm not friends with you because I pity you or I want to help you. I'm friends with you because you're a cool guy and I like hanging out with you. I care about you, Abed."

"You're not stupid, Troy. You were right."

"No, I wasn't."

"I got us trapped in here."

"I should have been watching the door."

"We both did wrong."

"And now we're going to die."

Abed said nothing for a moment. "Then we'll die friends."

Troy sniffled again.

"You're the tightest friend I've ever had."

"I know."

* * *

Jeff walked into the Nurse's office with the air of someone walking through a room filled with broken glass. He was never good at thinking straight when Annie cried. She was just so… adorable. He didn't want to ever admit thinking that about anyone or anything.

"Hey, Annie," he greeted warmly as he saw the back of Annie Edison, sitting in her chair and shaking quite visibly. "You okay-?"

She turned around, revealing that she had been wearing mascara today that was not altogether waterproof, and that she had been crying. "Oh. Jeff."

"Sorry that I couldn't make it to your dinner, Annie… there were other plans and-."

She whimpered and sobbed violently.

"I sent out the invitations at the beginning of summer!"

"I know, I know." He sighed, wrapping an arm around the girl. "It was so long ago and I swore to myself I was going to go and then I got caught up in all of this band stuff-."

"You didn't go to the dinner or our after school session yesterday or Monday."

"I know, it's just that-."

"I want to stay friends, Jeff."

"We're still friends, we're _all _still friends."

"Abed and Troy didn't go either."

"Abed and Troy are weird."

Annie sobbed again.

"I know. But they're our friends."

"Annie-." Jeff sighed. It had been two days. Two _days _that their study group hadn't all been together and that was it. How had that been too much? But… this was Annie. And she needed him, and Abed and Troy. "I'll quit."

Annie sniffled. "Really?"

"Really…" He squeezed Annie tight. "Now let's have a very, very special back-to-school lunch. Just you and me."

The girl smiled. "Thanks, Jeff."


	5. Act V

The cafeteria was empty, no workers, no students. Lunch didn't really start for another hour, and no one was here yet. It was a lunch just for Annie and Jeff, to make up for his negligence. That's how Annie had put it.

"You're going to break into the kitchen for me?"

"Yes, I care _that _much."

"Does this mean anything?"

"What?"

"We kissed, does this mean-?"

"Not unless you want it to."

Annie smiled. "Good. I wouldn't want to ruin our friendship."

"I… don't like to admit things like this, but I enjoy being your friend, Annie. You're a cool kid."

She looked close to tears.

"You, too, Jeff."

The kitchen was unlocked, thank goodness.

"So, what would you like today, milady? Egg salad sandwich? Sloppy Joe? Fancy macaroni with special cheese?"

"Hmmm. Chicken."

"Of course, that'd be-."

"In the freezer."

"No, it's here in the fridge-."

"No, in the freezer, I hear something."

Jeff raised his eyebrows, but sure enough he did hear something. Was that… soft crying? Could never be sure unless he investigated this. He opened the freezer door to find Abed and Troy, hugging each other tightly. Troy was sobbing.

Annie blinked. "Well… that explains quite a bit."

* * *

After being warmed up and telling a very, very interesting story, Abed went back to his dorm and Troy was driven home by Pierce. Shirley had to go check on her boys, and Annie had another dinner to plan.

Britta and Jeff were left alone in their supposed after school study session.

"So, you really saved the day, Jeff." Britta snickered. "Rescued Abed and Troy, fixed Annie. And all with your very busy work schedule."

"Not so busy anymore."

"You quit."

"Yeah."

Britta nodded. "That's good of you."

"You're surprised."

"Only somewhat."

"Only somewhat?"

"You've changed quite a bit."

"Or I would appear to have changed."

"Of course you would want me to think that you haven't. It's not fun if people think you care."

"I don't care, most of the time."

"Most of the time."

"Yes."

"When do you care?"

"That's a secret."

"Secrets don't make friends, friends make secrets."

Jeff rolled his eyes.

"Oh please, don't act all offended. We can't not be friends."

"You think we're friends."

"Yes."

"Good, I-."

Jeff cut her off with a kiss, it lasted all of three seconds before she pulled away.

Britta furrowed her brows. "That was an interesting way to ignore all of what we just said."

"I didn't believe me."

"I didn't believe you, either."


End file.
